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TripAdvisor to flag hotels where sexual assault occurred

By KAREN SCHWARTZThe New York Times

Thu., Nov. 9, 2017

Responding to what one travel expert categorized as “a wake-up call,” TripAdvisor has begun placing symbols next to hotels and resorts that have been identified as locations of sexual assault and other major concerns.

Based on news reports as well as comments from the TripAdvisor community, the warnings are designed to identify health, safety and discrimination issues in all of the website’s travel categories, said a company spokesman, Kevin Carter.

Kristie Love was raped at a Iberostar resort in Riviera Maya in Mexico. She fought to warn travellers about what happened to her in 2010. She went to the travel site TripAdvisor that she used most when scouting out a vacation. The online travel website, which claims to post "reviews you can trust," initially refused to publish her post. (Mike De Sisti / Tribune News Service)

“These badges will remain on TripAdvisor for up to three months. However, if the issues persist we may extend the duration of the badge,” he said. “These badges are intended to be informative, not punitive.”

Decisions to add or remove a badge will be made by an employee committee, he said. Listings will not be removed from the TripAdvisor website regardless of the number of complaints. “We want consumers to see good and bad reviews of businesses,” Carter said. Comments from users will continue to be posted on the site.

Three resorts in the Playa del Carmen region of Mexico were those flagged by TripAdvisor, including the hotel ranked at No. 2 by users, the Grand Velas Riviera Maya; the hotel ranked at No. 4, the Iberostar Paraiso Maya; and the fifth-ranked hotel, the Iberostar Paraiso Lindo. Each had received thousands of reviews.

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TripAdvisor issued a public apology a week ago to Kristie Love, 35, of Dallas, after the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that TripAdvisor had repeatedly deleted her 2010 forum post about the Paraiso Maya resort, where she said she had been raped by a security guard.

TripAdvisor said it had run afoul of a former policy that allowed only “family-friendly” language.

A subsequent guest at the same resort told The Journal Sentinel that she tried to write about a sexual assault that occurred there in 2015, but eventually gave up because TripAdvisor said parts of her review relied on information that wasn’t firsthand.

“In that review there’s a line about a doctor making a medical diagnosis. Because it was a third-party medical diagnosis, it constituted hearsay,” a TripAdvisor spokesman, Brian Hoyt, told The New York Times last week.

As part of its new policy, TripAdvisor will try to be more clear about why reviews are rejected. “Our new email communications will clearly articulate the phrase or sentences that are in violation of our policy, inviting the reviewer to make edits and resubmit their review,” Carter said.

“I think it’s a good thing that TripAdvisor is warning people of difficulties at these hotels,” Simona Jellenik, senior partner at Jellenik Law, told the Star. “It should make hotels more pro-active in their security, not only in terms of hiring people but in their ongoing security for guests in the hotel.”

The badge that will appear on TripAdvisor does not explicitly reference sexual assault, but says that the company has been made aware of “media reports or events concerning” the hotel or resort, and advises readers to perform additional research before making travel plans

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Gil Zvulony, a libel lawyer at Zvulony & Company, told the Star that the vagueness of the badge helps to protect TripAdvisor from being sued for defamation.

Thousands of women are identifying themselves as victims of sexual harassment or assault following a call to action propelled by Alyssa Milano in the wake of Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein's downfall over of allegations of sexual misconduct. (The Associated Pre

Reviews that allege sexual assault also pose legal challenges to TripAdvisor, said Zvulony. Under Canadian law, the platform where a comment is published can be held responsible if the comment is defamatory. This law does not exist in America.

Complaints of sexual assault on travellers are not new, and there are many posts on TripAdvisor written by travellers who say they were raped in various countries.

The U.S. government also identifies locations where sexual assaults occur. For instance, under “Country Information” for Mexico, the State Department cautions that, “Rape and sexual assault are serious problems in resort and other areas. Many of these incidents occur at night or during the early morning hours, in hotel rooms, or on deserted beaches, or through drugging of drinks.”

The Journal Sentinel reporting about TripAdvisor came at a time of a national conversation around sexual assault that was brought about by the Harvey Weinstein scandal and the #MeToo social media campaign.

The confluence of those events “served as a wake-up call to TripAdvisor,” said travel analyst Henry H. Harteveldt, the president of San-Francisco-based Atmosphere Research Group.

“It’s 100 per cent true that in 2017, and certainly going forward, no travel website can arbitrarily censor or remove posts just because they may address an uncomfortable topic or be awkward,” he said, noting that the travel sites have a responsibility to businesses to ensure that the allegations are accurate and verifiable.

The health, safety and discrimination badge is the third that TripAdvisor is using to mark businesses with potential concerns.

A badge is used to identify a listing that may be violating posting guidelines; for instance, by putting up fake reviews. Another badge is used to note when TripAdvisor freezes reviews during major news events where posts may not reflect the opinions of actual guests. That was used next to the Mandalay Bay listing in Las Vegas last month after a gunman killed 59 people and injured more than 500.

Harteveldt said he believes that TripAdvisor should link to government warnings as well. “I think that travel websites have a responsibility to be an advocate for their customers. It is helpful, and adds frankly to the trust, if they were to provide links to State Department advisories,” he said.

Carter said that TripAdvisor thinks that its 455 million users provide the necessary “checks and balances. As always, we encourage consumers to do additional research outside of TripAdvisor.”

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